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founded in 2000 by nigel savage, hazon has impacted thousands upon thousands of people, jewish and non-jewish, across the united states and israel as the “largest faith-based environmental organization in the u.s.” their work takes many forms and contexts over the last twenty years as they continue to be a resource and teacher to the jewish community on the path to sustainability. hazon’s mission is deeply rooted in the jewish value of tikkun olam, repairing the world, as evidenced by their mission statement: “we are in a global environmental crisis. jewish tradition compels us to respond.” calling themselves “the jewish lab for sustainability,” hazon uses jewish traditions and values, innovation, education, and community to bring environmentalism into the jewish community.  

i spoke to two people who work at hazon, wren hack, director of hazon detroit, and shamu sadeh, managing director of education at the isabella freedman jewish retreat center in falls village, ct, to talk about their work and the work of hazon as a whole. 

hazon has a presence in a number of cities across the country, including detroit. wren hack calls detroit a “lab for hazon,” where they have the opportunity to “create and execute new programs here that we believe and hope will be replicable for other communities.” they have had several events focusing on local and sustainable food, grains and beans in particular. at an event last year called “breaking bread together,” they were able to support a local farm and its regenerative farming practices by bringing in community members to learn about the grain they grow and the process of making bread, from grain to loaf. they also built an outdoor bread oven on the property and donated bags of flour and grains back to the community. another group hazon has worked with is the oakland avenue urban farm, a local nonprofit. here, hazon serves as a supporting partner, helping them to write grants and get funding for various projects. hack talked about the role of hazon in this case of asking what the community needs and making sure to really listen. hazon is mostly made up of white suburbanites, and the farm is an urban, black community organization. they focus on providing support and resources, approaching from a place of building a relationship as neighbors, acknowledging the imbalances. with the successes of these and similar programs, they are looking at how they can be replicated in other communities.  

the hazon jewish food festival is one of their most popular events every year. more than 7,000 people were in attendance in 2019. the main attraction, of course, is the food from local farms and vendors, but they also have sustainable arts and crafts, opportunities to learn about things like composting and rain barrels. it is a chance to expose many people to ideas and possibilities of sustainable food. organizations who have participated in the hazon seal of sustainability program, one of hazon’s major national programs, and received the seal of sustainability also table at the event and have the opportunity to show the community what projects they are working on. 

hack also spoke on the seal of sustainability. through this program, “sites” like synagogues, jewish community centers, and jewish day schools can undergo a series of audits that determine their sustainability strengths and weaknesses. from there, the site can choose an area they want to improve on and can receive a grant for $1000 to put towards a specific project. projects can include anything from changing to led light bulbs, going from plastic foam cups to glass cups, or buying local organic eggs. at the end of the year, the site is expected to take up the continuing costs, but can apply for a grant towards another project. the program also provides staff and community resources to support the effort. detroit is home to over 20 sites, with plans and funding to reach many more in the next few years. since the first year in 2016, there have been over 80 participating sites across the country. 

the isabella freedman jewish retreat center, which became part of hazon in 2014, is another major part of what hazon does. the retreat center is located in rural connecticut on 400 acres of land. the highlights of the grounds include the main building with beautiful art, cozy chairs, and a dining hall that serves incredible food, much of it grown on the farm on the property. there are cabins and more hotel-like lodging for guests to stay in, as well as a few yurts. there are trails and a lake to enjoy, and, of course, the farm and animals. they host various events throughout the year, including many centering on jewish holidays as well as yoga retreats, and other interest-based programs. 

the retreat center has been doing jewish, educational outdoor programming since 1994 when it started the teva (“nature”) learning center in conjunction with surprise lake camp. for over 25 years teva has provided thousands of jewish children with the opportunity to learn about the importance of nature and ways that they can help take care of the earth in their own lives. shamu sadeh co-founded adamah (“ground” or “earth”) in 2003 at isabella freedman. adamah is a three-month residential leadership program for jewish young adults interested in exploring the relationship between their judaism and the environment, particularly through stewardship and farming. “it was a way for us to put all these things together,” sadeh said. “intentional community, creative jewish spirituality, greening this institution, farming, celebrating [sabbath] after a week of hard work in the field, experiencing blessings over food when you’ve grown the food yourself, a real kind of do-it-yourself and empowerment oriented version of jewish community.” the jewish outdoor, food, farming & environmental education (jofee) fellowship is another similar program. fellows spend two weeks at the retreat center learning from hazon staff and field experts before going out into jewish communities where they help develop and lead programs that integrate the focuses of the program. sadeh noted the impact that the many alum of these programs have had in the international jewish community in camps, jewish community centers, and other similar settings, saying it is “[t]he biggest shift in the world we helped create.” 

one of the most surprising things to come out of isabella freedman, sadeh said, was the christian groups who have been coming to them to ask how to build something like isabella freedman in their own communities. sadeh attributes this outcome to the chapter that highlighted them in “soil and sacrament: a spiritual memoir of food and faith,” by author fred bahnson who came to the center for a week to write about it. christian groups look to them as a model of how to integrate faith, food, farming, and community and want to replicate what they have done. one relationship that has been created is with the wake forest divinity school. for two years, students were brought to isabella freedman to learn, and for the third year, sadeh went and taught at the school in their food and spirituality program. other groups include other retreat centers, a farm in the midwest looking to incorporate faith, local churches, and documentary makers, all interested in learning about what isabella freedman is doing. 

i asked both hack and sadeh what they felt the impact of hazon has been. “hazon catalyzed jewish food movement,” sadeh said, referring to the infusion of ancient values and ideas about food that the organization has brought and adapted to contemporary life. he went on to say that “people can connect to food and earth and evolve their tradition,” a sentiment that hack echoed. she spoke to the effect that hazon has through all of its different programs and locations, and all of those conversations “[have] an impact because we have an impact on thousands and thousands of people” and it all adds up, especially when they bring those conversations back to their communities and continue them. 

the climate is at a tipping point. hazon provides jewish people and communities, opportunities to take actions that not only coexists with but amplifies jewish values and living. it has built a foundation of education and community organized around shared identity, experiences, and values to address the most immediate crisis the world is facing. the potential for religious organizations to take these actions is shown in hazon’s work, and others are following their lead.

when the covid-19 pandemic ripped through the u.s. in late march and the nation settled into a springtime quarantine, many hoped by summer or early fall, everything from business operations to schools, and universities to restaurants would return to normal. 

but we all know that’s not what happened. 

“there is really no area of our operations that covid-19 hasn’t impacted,” said jill groednek, assistant market manager of the dane county farmers market in wisconsin. 

the dane county farmers market primarily serves the area surrounding madison, wisconsin. its downtown market, which runs outdoors around the state capitol from june to late fall, attracts thousands every week. because of its high traffic, groednek said wisconsin revoked their outdoor permit for the downtown market at the beginning of the pandemic, forcing them to adapt for the sake of their growers and consumers alike. 

in march, groenek said her team quickly pivoted from an indoor market to a pandemic-safe pick-up format, which ended up being a drive-thru model. customers would place an order from their favorite vendors ahead of time, and then the vendors would place their order contact-free in their cars. 

as spring turned to summer and the dane county team fell smoothly into their drive-up rhythm, they started to expand, and soon even got permission to re-launch a more traditional — yet still socially distanced — outdoor walk-up market. 

groednek said throughout the transition, they tried to support their vendors as much as possible, which included posting vendor information on their website. 

for brad wilson, a local farmer who’s sold herb and vegetable seedlings at the dane county market for 25 years, the pandemic meant an opportunity to branch into new, online marketplaces. 

“this year, i sold plants online using a squarespace website and square for online transactions,” wilson said. “i think this season forced me into selling online and using cards for payment, which is a good thing because there is a lot of potential to develop these techniques into ways to sell more product more efficiently.”

wilson also sells at the nearby baraboo county market, which he could continue to do as it reopened with social distancing measures in place. while wilson said he didn’t make as much this summer as he might usually, it “wasn’t a bad summer.” 

for other vendors, covid meant focusing more on selling to grocery stores, rather than at a market. pam augustyn of canopy gardens — a small farm selling vegetables and herbs — said she doesn’t plan to return to the farmers market until it returns to normal operations. augustyn said they tried out the drive-up format, decided it wasn’t quite right for their operation, and chose instead to focus on their efforts selling to grocery stores. 

“we have adapted and are continuing to adapt with marketing, and we are now looking into packaging more of our items for selling at grocery stores versus the farm market,” augustyn said. “what we plant and offer next year will be based on what we have adapted this year — we have been looking at alternate ways of packing the things we grow to be more accessible for grocery stores to sell.”

like wilson, augustyn said her operation took in less money from the market this year compared to previous — as much as three times less profit than usual in her case. but they’ve also sold more at stores, so while it’s still a loss, augustyn said it’s not as bad as it could have been if they hadn’t changed their delivery methods. 

in light of their new marketing strategies, augustyn said her team is considering not returning to the farmers market at all and instead just selling their produce to stores. 

university of wisconsin extension specialist kristen krokowski, who works with the wisconsin farmers’ market association said while shifting gears to accommodate growers and consumers during the pandemic has been challenging, it’s also taught their organization new skills. 

the wisconsin farmers market association is made up of directors of farmers markets across the state. while they don’t interact directly with growers and consumers much, they provide resources to farmers market organizers, and in a pandemic like this, support farmers statewide. 

“our goal is to support the market managers and the boards and things like that, so that they can provide good markets for their communities and for their farmers,” krokowski said. 

krokowski said the dane county downtown market was the only one of their around 300 markets that didn’t return to some sort of in-person, socially distanced capacity. but she also said the pandemic could have impacted grower-consumer relationships because social distancing can make it harder for farmers and consumers to have meaningful conversations. 

at a farmers market, krokowski said, consumers can ask questions about where their food is coming from, and make a request if there’s a certain item they’d like to see, connecting communities with food systems. plus, farmers markets offer more than just food — local entertainers and small businesses use them as a starting point. 

“they’re really important social structures for communities,” krokowski said. “they’re just really important to kind of reinforce that sense of community and that connectedness.” 

if anything, krokowski said the pandemic has helped people realize how important investing in local food systems are — especially back in march, when grocery stores experienced shortages nationwide. 

“you can go into the grocery store and whole shelves are empty or (find out that) what produce you can get this week’s kind of spotty. and i think for the people who utilize the farmers market or csas or local food, there’s some reassurance there,” krokowski said. “having diversified local agriculture helps with making sure that we can have products locally.”

“one of them shut down completely and then opened as a drive-through market and that was a complete disaster,” she said. “we would get two or three orders a week, not even making $20. it was just a real dead experience.”

it took markets shifting back to something resembling a traditional experience for behrmann and her small goat herd to see sales recover. this is a bumpy ride that many farmers market vendors in the d.c. area have experienced since the early months of the year.

deemed essential services, d.c. farmers markets remained open since the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic – but in order to keep vendors, staff, and customers safe, markets had to make sudden changes.

m.farmers markets across the country provide the unique opportunity for customers to purchase food directly from producers and, likewise, for farmers to connect with customers face-to-face. this can boost local economies and reduce the amount of energy needed to transport food across long distances.

in d.c., farmers markets also provide additional incentives for low-income families. most d.c. farmers markets accept snap and wic benefits, as well as benefits for senior citizens. many farmers markets in d.c. also “match” customers’ snap benefits so that each dollar can purchase more fresh produce.

since march, the d.c. government has required farmers markets to comply with public health regulations by promoting social distancing and mask wearing. markets must provide hand washing stations and vendor stalls may not offer samples. customers also must be encouraged not to touch products before purchasing.

these practices are in place at the d.c. farmers markets currently run by freshfarm, a nonprofit that operates more than 20 markets in the washington, d.c., metro area. derel farmer, freshfarm’s community outreach manager, said that the pandemic has forced market operators “to pretty much reinvent how we do business.”

“we understand that the farmer’s market is one of the few large, open venues left at this time,” he said. “there are very few other opportunities where large amounts of people can come interact and do so safely, so we are committed to making sure we keep this space open for people.”

this means offering pre-orders from many vendors for market pick-up or delivery. market vendors must assign staff to manage either money or product but not both, and they are encouraged to prioritize contactless payment options.

it also means deciding not to open several markets this year, such as the white house and foggy bottom markets, which have lost customers due to the pandemic.

freshfarm vendors said that although they are pleased with the safety practices in place, it is not business as usual. dana garner boyle, owner of garners produce in virginia, said that she has had to hire additional staff to manage her farmers market stall amidst health restrictions.

“we have stuck to the routine of gathering the items for the customer,” she said. “that’s extra work because it ties up our time when we could be chatting with the customer or refilling and restocking. so we have to hire extra staff to help get all that done and manage our lines so that everybody can maintain distance at the market better.”

boyle added that it breaks her heart that customers are not allowed to choose their own products, which is “so much a personal choice.”

“i really can’t pick out tomatoes that would suit everybody because that’s something different,” she said. “so we just kind of make a joke of that, like, ‘i will be so glad when y’all are able to pick your own tomatoes!’”

behrmann of shepherd’s whey creamery misses selling samples of her varieties of goat’s cheese, which she said “is a huge part of our selling strategy.”

“because artisan goat cheese is not a necessarily familiar product to many of our customers – it makes so much variation, depending on the individual producer of the cheese – it’s really difficult for people to know what they’re buying and to be willing to invest in something that they don’t have any idea about,” she said.

sustainability is also a concern. zach vandezande, the head of pr and publishing for number 1 sons, a small business that sells pickles, kimchi, and kombucha at d.c. farmers markets, said the business previously encouraged customers to take purchased products home in their own containers. due to sanitation concerns, the business has switched to packaging the products beforehand.

vandezande said number 1 sons is trying to balance how they can “stay as environmentally conscious and as environmentally responsible as possible while keeping people safe,” and added that this shift has been a “big touchstone” for the business’s customers.

nevertheless, markets like freshfarm’s have taken this opportunity to innovate rather than crumble. while leaving several markets unopened this season, freshfarm also opened a new market in virginia. farmer added that freshfarm also plans to extend several of its markets further into the winter to provide more time for vendors to sell their products.

freshfarm has also extended its snap matching program to all its markets. this comes at an important time, as recent data reveals that the number of american adults who reported that members of their households “sometimes or often did not have enough to eat” surged to more than 26 million americans in 2020, increasing the need for programs like snap.

farmer said that customer feedback to the market’s effort to balance safety and accessibility has been largely positive.

“the one thing that we hear over and over again is ‘thank you,’” he said. “‘thank you for doing this. thank you for being here.’”

boyle of garners produce said that she has seen steady business at her farm stand since the start of the pandemic.

“i think between our roadside market and the farmers market we’ve consistently stayed busy because people feel like their food has been handled less – it’s picked one day, it’s brought and sold the next – and it’s outdoor shopping,” she said. “so i think they feel a lot safer buying food at a market than they do in the grocery stores right now.”

vandezande of number 1 sons said he thinks customers are still attracted to farmers markets because there are “human stories” behind the products, and “those human stories matter.”

“one of the reasons people go to farmers markets is because they want to return to the idea that the land is connected, the product is connected to a human being who is making their living,” he said and contrasted the markets to grocery stores, where “food just appears as if by magic.”

at the end of the day, farmers markets remain essential to behrmann and her goat herd. she said that farmers markets are the only venues she has found that give small farmers access to the marketplace, and where she can receive immediate, direct feedback from her customers.

“i can’t imagine being a farmer where i just send it off to a distributor and never got to get any direct feedback of what the customer thought i was doing,” she said.

projections estimate that more than 54.3 million americans may experience food insecurity in 2020, according to a report by feeding america. before the covid-19 crisis began, that number was 37 million. as of the first week of july, more than one in ten americans had trouble putting food on the table, while a 2012 pew research report says nearly one in five adults in the u.s. have received food stamps at one point in their lives.

food insecurity is the inability to purchase enough nutritional food for a whole household. in developed nations such as the united states, food insecurity is a result of numerous factors, including poverty and lack of financial resources, as well as inadequate access to nutritious food. 

why do people continue to go hungry in one of the wealthiest nations in the world?  

to understand the problem, and the repercussions of these disruptions to our food system, it is important to know a bit about how our food supply chain works.

a food supply chain refers to various actors that produce, process, transport, distribute and sell to the public. lancaster central market in lancaster county, pennsylvania, serves as a local intermediary for a regional food economy that supports small-to-medium scale farms, fisheries, and other producers.

“pre-covid-19 numbers were around 5,000-6,000 customers a day,” said lancaster central market manager of operations mary goss. “but between march and may it would barely break 1,000.”

food waste was another problem during the early days of covid-19, as much of our impressive agricultural output was going to waste — even before the pandemic. recycle track systems, a sustainable waste advising organization, has explained the bottom line: 80 billion tons of food – or roughly 30-40% of the american food supply – is wasted in landfills, contributing to an astounding loss of $161 billion in revenue each year. 

for producers, particularly small-scale, sustainable agricultural operations, their success is both reliant on and a product of local community support. community-supported agriculture is so successful because local members collectively pay for the production capacity ahead of the growing season, ensuring financial security, higher returns on goods and reliable consumers moving forward, according to a 2003 cornell university report.

lancaster central market and several of its local, sustainable partners, such as barr’s farms and horse shoe ranch, have depended on the local community to get through the uncertainty. could this be a necessary step in the right direction to eradicate american food insecurity?

the food system amidst covid-19

there are numerous concerns for safety assurance in the current food supply chain amidst the covid-19 pandemic, largely due to the scale at which factory farms operate in the united states, as vox reports. 

self-sufficient family farms like horse shoe ranch in lancaster county have managed to overcome public health concerns and weathered the economic struggles that came with the pandemic. 

the ranch is run by bryan and brittany donovan, a married couple who represent a new generation of young farmers, and who produce 100% pasture-raised chickens and hens (outside 24 hours a day) for eggs, as well as varieties of non-gmo produce. 

even though community members ensured their existence in the short term, many restaurants had to cut business arrangements due to the pandemic. as of september, the ranch noted, “business…is not the same as it was pre-covid and our sales to lancaster restaurants have all but disappeared.”

meanwhile, the trump administration ordered that meat processing plants could not shut down that are not structured to accommodate safety concerns as covid-19 cases surged and fears of the food supply chain rose.

the third phase of the federal government’s relief program, the cares (coronavirus aid, relief and economic security) act, included $450 million to emergency food assistance programs (such as food banks), $300 million to the supplemental relief assistance program (snap), and $100 million to indigenous communities. 

the century foundation, which identifies as a “progressive, independent think tank,” said in a commentary published earlier this year that “it is clear that these efforts, while an excellent start, are not sufficient” to having 100% food security in this country. if the cares act allocated specific funds for farms that reached certain sustainability standards, then there could have been more assistance for small-scale farmers like the donovans. 

“we have applied for various grants and loans through(out the pandemic) and we have not been chosen for any,” brittany donovan said. “there are still a few that we are waiting on but there are very little grants out there that give to small, diversified farms like ours.”

some larger brands, such as annie’s, are supporting small-scale, conventional farms to transition to non-chemical, organic methods. last year, general mills pledged to transition 1 million acres of farmland to a model based on regenerative agriculture by 2030, but this is not the norm in agribusiness. instead, agricultural funding continues to be allocated to conventional farming methods rather than investing in organic methods for pest-removal, production efficiency, and expertise training programs. 

 

 

 

 

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it’s that time of year again, the extraordinary give! a day of giving back to our community. the lancaster central market trust is one of the organizations available to donate to this friday. our very own, ben barr, serves as one of the two standholders on the board. we are honored to be a part of this organization! #extragive

a post shared by barr’s farms (@barrsfarms) on nov 19, 2019 at 6:09am pst

barr’s farms, a family farm that has been in operation since 1926 and grows fruits and vegetables in lancaster county, is facing a similar situation in terms of their reliance on the communities they operate in.

“we did not apply for any help,” owner and farmer benjamin barr said, when asked about applying for federal assistance. but he said he plans on learning more about potential opportunities as a second round of funding approaches this fall. 

barr said his family’s farm has invested in the local community for decades, and the community showed up in force when they most needed it.

“the local community is the best support hands down,” he said. “customers and other businesses were more than willing to help and partner up and get creative to come up with new ways of doing business. proud to live and be able to do business in lancaster.”

***

sewanee’s first-ever harvest hootenanny started as a simple idea, then ballooned in size to involve more than 200 participants. the event sought to cultivate community, particularly between the students and employees eating local food in mcclurg dining hall, the farmers growing that food, and the mcclurg staff members preparing it.

“ann robinson (c’19) from the farm club and greenhouse had reached out to me. she wanted some help to do some kind of engagement piece with a farmer and student mix,” explained caroline thompson, senior cook in mcclurg dining hall. “we started with the contra dance idea and it ballooned into this huge event.”

thompson expressed that, although sewanee invests close to one million dollars in the local food economy every year, there is nonetheless a disconnect between students, farmers, and mcclurg staff members that each participate in this economy.

“and,” said thompson, “if we can provide that background of just meeting a farmer and what their life is like, i think we can spur even more conversations about changing big agriculture. that’s pretty idealistic — but i think there is movement in getting people in the same room and just being together and sparking conversations between groups that don’t generally mix.”

the event also sought to highlight the value of locally sourced food. in fact, it was the inspiration for the event.

“last spring i had talked to chef rick [the director of sewanee dining], and emmet logsdon, who is the owner of lost cove bison farm. and they were talking about how if we want to advocate for local foods it needs to be like coming from the students. so then i was like, okay, we should actually try and do an event,” said robinson.

robinson, a natural resources major and former work-study at the university farm, expressed that an event like this, focused on locally sourced food, would have to include a community aspect.

“i think environmentalism and community overlap and sustain one another, because i think if you have a strong human community, that allows you to extend your scope to the non-human community — or the environmental community,” she said.

robinson’s ideas about community and sustainability shaped the creation of the harvest hootenanny. after reaching out to thompson, robinson began brainstorming with her on what an event that involved both local farmers and students might look like. thompson explained that they wanted to be creative and depart from a typical farmer/student mixer model of just talking at a table.

that’s where the contra dance idea came in. contra dance is a type of dance composed of long lines of couples who move according to the caller. sewanee once held contra dances regularly, but nostalgia was hardly the only motivating factor behind putting together the contra dance. dancing was part of thompson and robinson’s aims of facilitating the mixing of different groups; not just farmer and student groups, but also divides between age groups.

robinson expressed her excitement about the intergenerational nature of the event. “you had all ranges of adults from their early 20s to like 80-year-olds coming through, and i was like, ‘i want this to happen more often.’ for people to be mingling in that manner, not just 20-year-olds surrounded by 20-year-olds all of the time.”

sewanee dining, the office of environmental stewardship and sustainability, sustain sewanee, greenhouse, farm club, university farm, the socially conscious investment club, swing that thing, perpetual motion, the community engagement house, and healthy hut all partnered together to help make the harvest hootenanny a success.

***

sewanee’s first-ever harvest hootenanny was much more complex than it ostensibly seems. it collapsed the distance between unlike communities and brought them under the same roof for a night full of laughter, dancing, and fun. it synthesized goals of overcoming decades-old ‘town versus gown’ resentments and age differences; it stimulated conversations about big agriculture and locally-grown food. and, it made a statement: sewanee students care about and want more locally-sourced foods. best of all — it was through food that harvest hootenanny accomplished these things.

“i think that’s why this event, in particular, was so great to me,” concluded robinson. “it combined a lot of those elements: trying to be appreciative and acknowledge that there is a local community that sustains us and a local environment that sustains us. but it was also about feeding people and getting people to connect.”

reflecting on the event, robinson said: “it was great — it was freaking great. when everybody was there eating together and i saw all of the tables full of people,” she paused and jokingly fist pumped, “i was like ‘oh my god, we did it!’”